Kodály
with improvisations by Hayden Chisholm
r e f r a m e d
The line bewteen folk music and improvisation can be very thin.
The concept of Kodály reframed presents at its heart a masterpiece of Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály extended by free improvisations inspired by his composition.
It all began with my fascination with the Kodály Sonata, which I first heard on record as a teenager. I was mesmerized by it and playing this piece became my dream, which finally came to realization at the end of my studies.
Since then I have performed the piece many times, each time discovering something new. One gets the impression that the Sonata is a living organism that transforms with our own development and allows for a lot of variation and fantasy.
Hence, a few years after my first performance of the Sonata, the idea for the Kodály reframed project was born in a collaboration with prominent improviser and saxophonist Hayden Chisholm.
Hayden’s improvisations, full of meditative character, evoke quotations from the Sonata, while at the same time diverging into his own world, which captures the transformative nature of Kodály’s music.
Thanks to a scholarship from the Deutsche Orchester Stiftung, this January 2024 project also featured renowned violinist and improviser Max Baillie. Together with Hayden, we presented Duo for Violin and Cello and Sonata at the Kühlhaus Berlin.
@Anita Wąsik Photograpy